Diversity Amongst Happy Faces

This is the "Potty Chart" that is displayed on our refrigerator. Every day that Noah does not have an accident, he gets a happy face. When the chart is full of happy faces, he gets a "Henry" train. The big X on the chart is a result of the stained chonies day and will be made up once all the other happy faces are filled in.

As you can see, the happy faces all looked the same up until the two and a half week mark. All of a sudden we have a curly haired happy face, a goatee mohawked happy face, a happy face of Asian descent, and a flat topped bully looking happy face. Ricky felt that my happy faces were not diverse enough and therefore not sending the right message to our children. So, I am no longer allowed to draw the happy faces because apparently I am not promoting diversity on the potty chart.

Movie Night

Like I've mentioned in a previous post, I am currently re-evaluating my life, re-prioritizing, and striving to make the most out of my time here on earth. God has opened my eyes to many things and I feel like I am seeing things from a whole new perspective. One of the things that I've determined to do, is enjoy the time I spend with my kids, be present with them mentally and not just physically, and start new traditions! Last Friday, we had our very first family movie night! We bought a classic, 101 Dalmatians, got in our jammies, made popcorn, brought out blankets and watched a movie together! It was so much fun to actually watch a movie with my kids rather than have the movie babysit my kids. They loved having mommy and daddy sit on the couch with them and cheer on the doggies and shoot (yup, shoot...with toy guns...yes we are a violent bunch) Cruella Devil and the bad guys with them. It was also the first time they'd had popcorn and they really enjoyed it.

Of course, Maia only lasted about 30 minutes before she had to go to bed, but all in all I can tell that movie night is going to be a hit for years to come!

Thomas is Taking Over Our Lives

Every night when I put the kids to bed they ask for me to sing a song. I think they do this to postpone bed time as long as possible by keeping me in the room, but I use this opportunity to sing to them worship songs that we sing in church . I really want my kids to love the Lord and understand what it means to sing praises to Him. They are now familiar with a few worship songs and I love asking them what they want me to sing at night. The usual answer is "Hosanna" by Hillsongs United. So, last night when Maia asked for a, "song?" I asked which one, fully expecting my spiritually mature child to reply, "Hosanna." Instead the answer was, "Thomas." Huh? There are no worship songs entitled "Thomas." What is she talking about? Noah chimes in, "Yeah, Thomas the Train song mommy!" The chant from both cribs rose up, "Tho-mas, Tho-mas, Tho-mas." No amount of persuading could have changed their minds to pick a worship song. I breathed a quick apology to God for my heathen children and sang,

"They're 2, they're 4, they're 6, they're 8.
Shunting trucks and hauling freights.
Red and green and brown and blue,
They're the really useful crew.
All with different roles to play
Round Tidmouth sheds and far away.
Down the hills and round the bend.
Thomas and his friends."

Then I sang it again, and again, and again. Apparently that song never gets old to my one and two year old.

There Has to be More to Life Than Poop!

This morning Maia woke up and asked to go poop on the potty. This has become a bit of a game we play because she likes to sit on the toilet and pretend. She wants those little colorful pretty tasty looking things that Noah gets every time he sits on the potty. She also sees him get praised every time he does it and wants some of that praise for herself! I took off her diaper. She sat on the potty and grunted and said, "All Done." I say, "Good girl!" like I always do and we walked into the living room to watch Sesame Street and to put her diaper on. I sat down on the floor and went to reach for her. Suddenly, her face turned red and in a labored, pushing, grunting fashion she growls, "POOOOP." Oh no, no, no, no! Why my immediate reaction was to put my hand on her butt, I'll never know...or maybe I do know. Maybe I thought that would stop her from going. It didn't. I screamed, she cried, Noah yelled from his crib, "WHAT'S HAPPENING MOMMY?" I frantically called for Ricky and Maia went to hug me for comfort. Somehow the mess got on my leg, her foot, the carpet, and of course in my hand. Ricky, slowly made his way to the living room, gagged, and picked Maia up holding her as far away from his body as he could and took her straight to the bath tub. I yelled to Noah that everything was okay despite mommy's frantic cries. He responded with, "I wanna see Maia's poop!" I finally got the courage to move and clean myself off and then proceeded to clean the mess off the floor all the while listening to Ricky dry heave as he washed Maia in the bath tub.

Every day is an adventure when you're a parent. It is funny that after all that chaos, I head off to work and no one there has a clue that 1 hour prior to my arrival, I was covered in poop!

Don't Cry Over Stained Chonies

Pride comes before the fall. It seems like that is a phrase I use often on this blog. Just when I thought we had conquered potty training we have a major hiccup.

My kids are scheduled kids. I know many people feel very strongly against scheduling but me, well, if my kids were not scheduled I'd be in a mental hospital or in a bar. So, scheduling and strict routine works for our family. The problem is that when the routine gets thrown off, everything gets thrown off. This week Bup was sick and so on Tuesday I had to take the kids to daycare at work. I prayed for Noah to go poop before we let the house, and thank God he did. I was so happy to have his daily poop out of the way before he went to daycare...little did I know that even his poop schedule would be thrown off that day (he pooped a total of FOUR times that day). The morning was chaotic but I finally get them dropped off after telling Noah one million and two times to, "Tell the teacher if you need to go potty. If you go potty in your chonies mommy will have to throw them away."

I worried all morning about them because they were not in their normal environment and I counted down the minutes until Ricky would pick them up. Finally at around 12:45 Ricky came to my work to pick the kids up. We went together to go get them and when we got to the room my stomach dropped. Noah was on the changing table being changed. He doesn't need to be changed anymore. He is potty trained. Noah looked back at me with those big brown eyes and began to cry. "He had an accident," the sweet daycare lady said. Awwww man! It's all my fault. It is because he wasn't in his normal environment. I should have just taken the day off. What a horrible mother. Now he is embarrassed and upset and it's all my fault. Then, in between sobs he says, "You'll wash 'em mommy?" Oh SHOOT! What to do? Do I stick to my guns and throw his favorite chonies away like I said I would or do I just wash the nasty things?...I've got to stick to my guns or he is going to think it's okay to poop in his chonies. "No, buddy," I say, "Mommy has to throw them away because you pooped in them and they are ruined." He cries harder, my heart breaks. We finish cleaning him up, he asks 12 times where his chonies are and begs me not to throw them away. I feel like a horrible mom as I throw the poop chunked beloved Thomas chonies in the trash. He screams and cries. He leaves with Ricky.

I go to the cafe to eat lunch and I feel my eyes getting warm and filling with tears. You cannot cry. Hold yourself together. What are you going to tell people if they ask why you're crying? How silly will you look if you tell them that your sobbing over throwing away Thomas the Train poop chunked chonies? They won't even know what "chonies" are! Suck it up.

It took everything within me that day not to cry for the rest of the day. It was a mixture of mom guilt and grieving over lost favorite Thomas the Train chonies. I may have to write an ode to the famous chonies because the loss was just so devastating.

On a positive note, Noah is back on his routine today...even his poop routine. No accidents, no thrown away chonies. All is right with the world again.

Last Lake Day of the Summer

It was our last lake trip of the season and we had a great time. Here are some pics...

The kids love lake days!

Noah even went wakeboarding with daddy and stood on the board too! I was so proud!

My brother illustrating that Red Bull really does give you wings. We are hoping Red Bull will pay us for this picture...okay not really but it is a really cool shot because it was taken by me!

Noah and Maia fought over the flag the whole time. He didn't quite grasp the concept of holding it up only when the rider was down.

It was a good riding day for Ricky, he landed a few flips.

They both had a turn to drive the boat and push buttons.

Look at that crazy hair!
He thought it was hilarious that the boat was peeing!

Noah had to poop and we were prepared. It turned out to be a false alarm, but it made for my favorite picture of the day!

I Cannot Be Trendy

My sister-in-laws always have the cutest designs on their toes. Their toe nails actually look like works of art. Mine are always plain and boring...mostly because I am too cheap to pay for a design. But, today was different. I felt like a big spender and I wanted to have cute trendy toe nails so that I could fit in with the girls...bad idea! I should never try to be trendy, because it always goes bad for me.

I thought that since Halloween was coming up I would do black nail polish with white polka dots. It looked so cute in my head, however, the end product looks nothing like the cute picture in my head. The girl got a little carried away with the polka dots and now I am left with a hideous, way too expensive pedicure, that I will not remove because I am too cheap. So, just like every other pedicure I've had since having children, I will be stuck with this ugliness for the next 3 months and if you get a glimpse of them, try to pretend like you didn't see. Oh and for those of you who will never cross my path, I've posted a picture...